


Never-ending Caress

by green_and_gold



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Comedy, Drama, F/M, Family, Fluff, Romance, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-02-26 23:53:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18727414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green_and_gold/pseuds/green_and_gold
Summary: *MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS*Five years ago I watched from the shadows as the only man I ever loved sacrificed himself to the tyrannical grape. Five years ago I watched as Thor practically threw that sacrifice away, gradually becoming a fat, lazy drunk. Five years ago I learned that the trickster had one last surprise up his sleeve -- not knowing that it would actually turn into two.It's been five years since my life simultaneously ended and began; my two young children and I now living in a small cottage in New Asgard. I haven't spoken to my almost brother-in-law since he picked up a beer five years ago and never put it down, leaving me to confide in our two other companions from Sakaar for all these years. They knew better than to give me hope of ever seeing my children's father again -- knew that I wouldn't be able to once again handle facing the reality that he was never coming back....So why is one of them standing in my living room talking about time travel?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Your girl saw Endgame last weekend and is absolutely WRECKED at the lack of our favorite, green mischief maker. I am here to rectify that nonsense! Please enjoy!

"Frigga! Jasper! It's time to come inside for dinner!"

My voice carried out through the hills in my backyard, only to be met with silence. A few seconds later, the sound of childish laughter was the only response I received.I huffed out a small laugh of my own and crossed my arms, leaning against the door frame.

"I'm going to give you to the count of three. If you aren't in the house and washing up by then..." I trailed off, letting their imaginations do the work. "One... Two..."

Their youthful giggles grew louder as they came ever closer, and I suddenly saw two heads peek over the hill closest to the house; one whose mop of hair fell into his eyes and the other who had her hair in two bouncing pigtails, both stark black in color, as they ran towards me as fast as their little legs could carry them.

I couldn't help the smile that settled onto my face, watching as Frigga grasped her brother's hand to try to pull him into moving a little faster. When they were halfway to the door I resumed counting.

"Two and a half... Two and three-quarters..." I knelt down and caught one in each arm as they tried to blow passed me, squeezing them tightly. "Three!"

Their arms wrapped around me immediately and squeezed back just as tight. Soft giggles fell into my right ear. Leaning back, but still keeping them in my embrace, I turned toward the source of laughter. My daughter had mirth sparkling in her bright, green eyes as she looked up at me.

"Mama..."

"What?" I looked over to Jasper in confusion, but he paid no mind to me, exchanging a knowing glance with his sister before bursting into giggles of his own."What is it?"

"Mama!"

I turned back to my daughter. "Yes, Frigga?"

"You always do this Mama!"

"Oh? And what is it, exactly, that I always 'do'?"

Jasper, ever the logical one, answered this time. "We thought you would be mad if we came back after you said so. But you always wait until we're home to say 'three', and then give us hugs instead!"

"Oh, my little munchkins!" Now knowing the reason for their giggles I joined in with laughter of my own, leaning back in to hug them once more. "I would never be mad at you for being late! I would be so worried! I can't go for more than three seconds before smothering you with love!"

I leaned down and rained a flurry of kisses upon their faces, alternating between my son and daughter until they were laughing too hard for me to land one anywhere.

"So, you see, the countdown isn't for your benefit but mine! That's why I make sure you both are safe in my arms before reaching the end. Because I just love you soooo much!"

"We love you, too, Mama!"

"Good." I gave them each a parting kiss to the top of their heads, releasing my grasp on them. "Now go wash up for dinner."

My hands immediately came up to grasp at the door frame, stopping both of them in their tracks. "Ah, ah, ah. Aren't you forgetting something?"

Twin, moist kisses fell up on my cheeks. I swung my arms up and around, tapping them both on their backside as I stood. "Thank you. Now get going already!"

They walked into the kitchen, chattering with each other as they turned into the living room. I turned my attention to the stove where a stew of carrots, celery, beef, and broth was simmering. Picking up the wooden spoon that was resting on the counter-top nearby, I made to give the stew a stir when a piercing scream filled my small home, turning my blood ice cold.

I ran into the living room, brandishing the spoon as a weapon, with a cry of my own. "Get away from my children, you f- "

Whatever obscenity I was about to shout immediately died in my throat at the sight that greeted me. There, standing in my already tiny living room, was a giant, muscled man who had my son perched on one hip while my daughter took up refuge atop his broad shoulders. Alerted by my cry, she looked down at me, a wide smile splitting her face.

"Look, Mama! Uncle Bruce is here!”

No longer in a state of panic, I passed my eyes over the man once more. Verifying that it was, in fact, the half hulked-out doctor who stood in front of me, graciously allowing my children to climb him like a home jungle gym, all the tension left my body as I dropped my arm to the side. I met his gaze with a harsh stare, satisfied that he seemed to be slightly regretful for scaring the living daylights out of me as he sheepishly raised a hand in greeting.

"So he is."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s taken forever for this chapter! I wanted to make it longer, but then you really wouldn’t get it anytime soon. Enjoy!

After letting them burn through their initial excitement at seeing 'Uncle Bruce', I shooed away the twins to finally head upstairs and wash up with the promise that yes, he would be staying for dinner. Deciding that there was no way he was going to fit at my kitchen table, I instructed him to sit on my couch as I brought everything to the living room.

"So, Bruce," I called over my shoulder as I walked into the kitchen, "to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

I grabbed four sets of bowls, cups, and spoons—two sets adult sized, the other two significantly smaller—and stacked them on top of four placemats before taking the lot into the next room. I looked at Bruce expectantly as I entered, waiting for a response. It wasn't until I placed everything in the middle of my coffee table with the intent of setting it that I got one.

"Can't an old friend drop by and say hi every once in a while?"

I barely spared him a glance as I spread the placemats out and placed a bowl and spoon on each one. "Really? I gave you all that time and that's the best you could come up with?"

I finished distributing the cups before pinning him with a stare. "I'm disappointed. You should know me better than that."

"Alright, you got me." With an eye roll and a scoff, I turned to get the remaining items from the kitchen. "While I must say that it really is nice to see you again, it's unfortunate that it has to be under such... extenuating circumstances."

Pausing in my movements of grabbing the burn protector from on top of the fridge, my eyes grew wide while my heart felt as if it had suddenly dropped into my stomach. "How extenuating?"

At the sound of silence my body kicked into overdrive, and I came rushing back out of the kitchen. "Bruce—"

"Uncle Bruce!"

My daughter suddenly came barreling down the stairs screaming as Jasper trailed behind her, taking the steps one at a time. Paying no mind to me, she brushed right by and into the waiting arms of her uncle. I could only continue to stare at him, slack-jawed. There was a tug at my arm, and I looked down to see Jasper's innocent face staring back up at me.

"Can I help?"

I must have stared at him a moment too long because he suddenly thrust his finger out and pointed to the half-set coffee table. I blinked rapidly, grounding myself back to this moment, and looked back down at him with a soft smile.

"Would you please grab your and your sister's play chairs and put them next to your bowls?"

He gave me a toothy grin and immediately made his way over to their play corner to grab the chairs. I moved over to the coffee table and placed the burn protector in the middle of the table settings before laying a stack of napkins down next to it. My eyes flicked up to grab Bruce's attention and, though he seemed to be paying mind to my toddler on his lap, found that he was already watching me. I mouthed the word 'later' to him, waiting until he nodded in agreement, before moving into the kitchen for the final item.

Turning the stove burner off, I picked up the ladle and placed it under my arm before grabbing the oven mitts and putting them on. I lifted the stew pot off of the stove and made my way into the living room where I froze at the threshold between the two rooms.

The sight of the neatly set table for four, the sound of my children laughing with each other, the smell of the dinner I had just prepared—they were all aspects of a dream I had had plenty of times before. My heart clenched in my chest, and the overbearing feeling that I was once again dreaming suddenly washed over me. The sound of my name had me squeezing my eyes shut, refusing to face the man that continuously haunted my dreams.

"Stop. Please. Not now," I whispered.

My name was called twice more in his wonderfully lilting tone before it was said a third time, sharply but filled with concern and with a completely different voice. My eyes shot back open, and I blinked twice to find that everything looked exactly the same. Focusing on the couch, I met the concerned glance of Bruce and the confused eyes of my children.

Frigga spoke up first. "Are you okay, mama?"

"Sorry, baby, mama's just fine." I gave her a soft smile as I deposited the pot on top of the burn protector, taking my mitts off as I walked around the table to the couch to kneel in front of her. I passed a hand softly across her hair. "I'm just a little tired, is all. No need to worry about me, okay?"

My measly excuse seemed to placate her, and, not for the first time, I was grateful at how innocently kids took things at face value. My son was not so easily deterred.

"If you're tired, then you should take a nap. That's what you always tell us!"

"Ugh, naps stink!" Frigga chimed in.

Holding in my laughter at her comment, I addressed Jasper. "You're absolutely right, munchkin. Maybe I'll take one after dinner while you and your sister entertain Uncle Bruce."

I flicked my gaze over to Bruce and had to physically bite my tongue to keep from bursting out in laughter at his horror-stricken face.

"Really?!"

Frigga jumped her to feet and turned to Bruce excitedly, placing her small hands on his knee to push herself into his face as she looked up at him in utter joy.

"Uh..."

Bruce looked so utterly lost as his eyes darted from my puppy dog-eyed daughter to me and back that I couldn't hold back from laughing any longer. I let him sweat it out a few seconds longer before finally taking it easy on the big guy.

"Next time, sweetie. Your mama and Uncle Bruce have some catching up to do first." I twirled one of her pigtails around my fingers as I stood up and made my way back to the other side of the coffee table. "Alright, you two. Get into your chairs so we can start dinner."

I grabbed the throw pillow that was resting on the reclining chair and dropped it on the floor as my makeshift chair. Lowering myself unto the pillow, a smile crept onto my face as my kids took their seats—Jasper to my left and Frigga to my right—and placed their hands on the table, waiting to be served. However, something odd caught my eye.

"Jasper? Gloves?" I asked, referring to the thin, black cloth gloves that covered his hands.

He looked down sheepishly, tucking his hands under the table. His whispered answer was so low I struggled to hear him. "My hands were cold after washing."

"Ah." My mind clicked in realization, and I grabbed one of his hands to place back on top of the table, my thumb rubbing soothing circles across it. "It's okay, honey. It's just been so long, I thought..."

I trailed off, not really sure how to end the sentence. "Well, it doesn't matter what I thought. What matters is that you're allowed to wear your gloves whenever you feel like it, okay?"

He beamed up at me with a toothy grin, no longer feeling shy about his hand wear. "Okay!"

Knowing that Frigga was well versed in hearing about the topic of Jasper's gloves, I felt no qualms about ignoring Bruce's inquisitive gaze. Instead, I turned my attention to the still steaming pot of stew in front of me, carefully ladling a serving into everyone's bowls.

"Okay, everyone, eat up!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don’t know what to say other than it kinda went in a way I didn’t intend for it to go. Hope you still enjoy?
> 
> Please check notes at the end!!

Dinner went about as successfully as one would expect when it comes to a pair of toddlers and bowls of soup. Frigga spent most of her time chatting Bruce's ear off about the various things she had done during the week, never actually bringing any spoonfuls up to her mouth. I ended up taking over, periodically feeding her in between words. Of course, this only made Jasper jealous so I had to switch up my tactics, rotating between feeding Frigga, Jasper, and myself. After integrating that system, dinner went by much quicker and soon everyone was just about finished.

"Mama," Jasper caught my attention as I was feeding him the last of his soup, "Can you get me some water, please?"

"Of course I can, munchkin. Do you want some water, too, Frigga?" I asked, looking over to my daughter. At her enthusiastic nod, I turned my attention to Bruce. "Would you like anything to drink? Water? Juice? Wine?"

He gave me a soft smile. "Water is fine, thank you."

Placing my hands onto the table, I pushed myself up from the floor and stretched before making my way into the kitchen. I opened the fridge and reached for the water jug inside, my eye catching the unopened bottle of wine that was sitting in the door.

"You and I have a date later, my friend," I whispered to it before retreating from the fridge and heading back to the living room.

I made a trip around the table, pouring water into everyone's cups before finally pouring a little out for myself, and sat down. I fed Jasper and Frigga two more spoonfuls each to finish up their soup and excused them both from the table to play while I cleaned up. I gathered up everyone's dishes except for the kids' water cups and moved to bring them into the kitchen when I was stopped by a large hand wrapping around my arm.

I looked up at Bruce in question, but he only stood up and grabbed everything out of my hands in response. I could only follow him into the kitchen in silence as he placed the dishes in the sink and started to wash them.

"Not that I'm complaining or anything, but why are you doing my dishes?"

He huffed out a small laugh through his nose. "When was the last time you had any help here?" 

"Are you trying to say I look tired or something? Because I'll have you know—"

"Would you relax?" He was full on laughing now. "I'm just saying that it seems like it's been so long since you've interacted with anyone but your kids that you've forgotten what it's like to have someone else care for you. So just sit down and let me help. It's the least I can do after showing up out of the blue like this."

"Oh! Uhm, thank you." I collapsed into one of the chairs that sat around my kitchen table. Apart from the washing of dishes and the faint sound of the children playing in their room filtering through the ceiling, my quaint home was fairly silent. I wasn't about to have that.

"Bruce, what is going on? The last time I saw you the twins were still in diapers and you were just embracing your whole 'becoming one with the Hulk' thing. A few months after that and I wasn't receiving so much as a letter from you. And now what? You show up in my living room for no reason other than to check up on me claiming 'extenuating circumstances' and do my dishes?"

I could tell that I had caught him off-guard because his back completely tensed up causing him to pause in his movements. I held my breath as I waited for his response when he suddenly relaxed and resumed his task.

"Frigga tells me you've been teaching her and Jasper how to read. How has that been going?"

"God damn it Bruce, stop deflecting!" I was so mad that I saw red and smacked the table. "You're worrying the hell out of me, and I don't know what to think! I can handle whatever it is you think I need shielding from!"

It was then that something occurred to me. "Did we... did we lose someone else? Is that it?"

I had always been somewhat of an easy crier but with how tense I had already been from earlier added to the possibility that we had lost yet another friend, and I wasn't surprised to feel that telling sting behind my eyes. I pressed the heel of my palms against my eyes to try to stun the flow of tears but couldn't help the few that escaped down my cheeks. I was more than startled when I felt a comforting hand fall upon my head and jumped in my chair at the touch. Looking up, I saw that Bruce had left the sink and was now kneeling on one knee in front of me.

"No, I'm sorry. It's nothing like that, I swear."

"So, what is it?"

I gazed into his eyes, looking for any hint of a reaction—good or bad. I could tell that whatever it was he wanted to say was right there on the tip of his tongue, but he continued to hold back. I stared and stared and stared, willing to wait as long as it took for his tongue to loosen. It felt as though I had been waiting for an eternity when he finally opened his mouth to speak.

"How have you and the kids been faring without... you know?"

Flabbergasted. Absolutely and utterly flabbergasted. Of all the things I had expected him to say that was, quite possily, the last question I would have thought to come out of his mouth, and it left me completely floored. I continued to stare at him, only this time in shock, which eventually gave way to unmitigated anger.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

The harsh words came out no louder than a whisper, but I could tell he heard them when he jerked back in surprise. There was a fire in my veins as l swatted his hand away and stood up to look down at him fiercely.

"You dare come into my house after years of not speaking to or seeing each other-first of all, not even bothering to knock on my door. No, you just walk right in like you own the place! And I didn't completely get upset, mind you, because my children have just been dying to have their Uncle Bruce visit them again, so I wasn't going to take that away from them. But everything comes at a price, doesn't it? You've made my kids the happiest they've been in months just to turn around and ask how they've been faring without their dead father?!"

I had gotten so worked up that I hadn't even noticed how loud my voice was getting until I saw Bruce trying to discreetly put a finger to his lips. Though it only pissed me off more, there was no way in hell I was going to expose the kids to this, so I fought to lower my volume.

"Faring," I scoffed, pushing passed him to lean across the sink and cross my arms. "You want to know how we're 'faring'. Yeah, you really cared about how well we were doing when you were off 'finding yourself' for two years. You can't even say his name, and you want to know how we're faring."

I shook my head in disgust as I stared out the kitchen window, watching as the sun's last rays disappeared behind the tallest hill.

"Tell ya what. Next time you want to see how the kids and I are faring without Loki, ask Thor. See if he can tell you something new." I took a deep breath and pushed off the counter to walk towards the living room, pausing in the doorway. "Now get the hell out of my house."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a few questions for all you fellow readers and writes out there! Please feel free to ignore or respond!
> 
> 1\. Do you like reading chapters before they’re published?  
> 2\. Would you say you have efficient grammar skills?  
> 3\. Are you good at enforcing deadlines?  
> 4\. Do you have free time and would like to help a girl out?
> 
> If you answered yes to any of these questions, I would love to hear from you as I am in need of a beta-reader! If interested, please send me a PM and I’ll get back to you with more info!
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!


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